Hon’ble Supreme Court India, stayed an order issued by Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to remove the TRAI’s regulation on limiting the number of SMSes to 200 per day per SIM. Thus TRAI’s regulation of sending 200 SMS per day per SIM still prevail, which was introduced as a step to stop pesky SMSes from telemarketing companies.
TDSAT had on July 17 termed the ceiling on SMSes as “arbitrary” and against the right of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution, thus set aside the sector regulator TRAI’s circular that limited the number of SMS one could send in a day. TRAI made appeal against the TDSAT’s order in Supreme court.
According to various media reports the TDSAT passed the order on the plea of late Bal Thackeray’s grandson Aditya Thackeray. Supreme Court in a brief hearing under the bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi stayed the TDSAT’s order and also issued notice to Aditya Thackeray.
Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya had submitted that the restriction on SMSes was just a “non-application of mind” by TRAI and the circular fixing ceiling “has not explained why and how the figure of 100/200 SMS(s) per day was arrived at.” He had further contended that no consultation process was adopted by TRAI before incorporating the clause in this regard in the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (8th Amendment) Regulation, 2011.
As a final thought , heavy SMS sender’s, you should remain happy with 200 SMS per day, till TRAI and other telecom operators comes out with a proper way to block telemarketing SMSes.